


all you need to save me

by afrocurl



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Erik is Crushing Harder than a 12-year Old Girl, Erik is not a Happy Bunny, First Kiss, M/M, Religion, Religious Content, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-18
Updated: 2013-09-18
Packaged: 2017-12-26 23:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/971477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles has been talking about joining the preisthood, and it's driving Erik,  his best friend (and the boy who loves him), absolutely crazy.</p>
<p>If only Charles could understand the other side of this noble idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all you need to save me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Black_Betty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Black_Betty/gifts).



> Title nicked from the Tegan and Sara song "Soil, Soil". 
> 
> Originally written for a prompt **Black_Betty** left on her tumblr that went as follows:
>
>> I was at the movies tonight, and on the pre-show where they have trivia about actors and such, there was a still of James McAvoy saying say he seriously considered becoming a priest before he decided to get into acting….which immediately INCEPTED MY BRAIN with first class fic bunnies where a young Charles considers joining the priesthood instead of going on to do his PHD, and everyone (ESPECIALLY his best friend Erik who has been secretly pining over him for years, just waiting for the right moment to confess all his feelings) is like “NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!”   
> and it’s a complete mess of everyone falling over each other to convince Charles that CELIBACY WAS NEVER AN OPTION.
> 
> It took a slightly different turn, but... 

Every time Charles talked about priesthood and missionary work and seeing the world while helping people, Erik couldn't help but stew, neglected, in silent anger. He was, he knew, prone to fits of rage, but until this point, they had never been directed at Charles.

Charles had been his best friend for years, and over the last few years Erik was equally sure that his feelings for Charles were not like those of a best friend, but those of a potential lover; Erik’s libido had been on overdrive the last two years as he jerked off to a few scant mental images of Charles half-naked from gym glass. 

But as Charles continued to press the issue of becoming a priest at lunch each and every day, Erik’s ire grew. He hoped that everyone else - Raven, Hank, Alex, maybe even Armando - would complain enough about it, but they all hummed as Charles extolled the virtues of becoming a Man of G-d.

“I’ll be able to use the Spanish and French I’ve been taking,” Charles said one day. He had his usual animated hand gestures, and looked as if he could really do good work. But no one said anything as he went on. Erik was sure that the group knew better than to interrupt Charles in the middle of one of these, though he wished that they would. He was tired of listening to all of Charles’ discussions about how he could do good work when all Erik wanted was a good chance to say that joining the priesthood would deny Charles Erik - be it as a lover or a friend.

“But won’t you miss all of us? Wouldn't being a missionary mean that you'd be far away from here?” Erik asked, because that was a safer question than the one he truly wanted to ask.

“There’s email and phones and Skype. I’m not going to live in a bubble,” Charles replied.

Erik wasn’t sure he believed Charles’ words at all.

-

Charles’ tirades, though they were less animated than the first, continued well into the fall, and Erik did all he could to just sit back and let it wash over him. No one else said anything, and so he kept quiet because he wasn’t about to be a horrible friend when Charles had always been the one to support their group. He simply nodded and smiled at Charles’ discussions now, doing his best to placate Charles’ passion.

However, today Charles’ discussion of what it meant to be a priest made Raven speak up. “Charles, we all know you want to do this, but can we not at lunch? I’d rather not think of you contracting some infectious disease while trying to convert people to Christianity.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Charles said.

“That’s the point,” Raven said before she pressed on, “your job will be telling someone else that they’re wrong and you’re right. How is that like you?”

Charles had nothing to say on the matter, and thankfully went back to eating the last bit of his sandwich.

Erik silently wanted to thank Raven for asking that question, because the idea had crossed Erik’s mind at least three times in all of Charles’ conversations. Never had Charles tried to tell anyone in their group that they should adopt his ideology, but that was the point of being a missionary.

Maybe this would get Charles to stop discussing it.

-

There were still two months until most of their college applications were due, and Erik watched as Charles paid the entire process no attention at all. Raven’s words the other week had done nothing to alter Charles’ opinions on being a priest.

“Do you have some kind of backup plan?” Hank asked. Hank had been the worst of them all in terms of his levels of paranoia about his personal statement and his test scores.

Charles started to laugh but stopped himself. “If this doesn’t work out, I’ll take a gap year. It’s not the end of the world for me to boost my community service if I want to go to Harvard. But that’s only _if_ I don’t go find a divinity school that will accept me without a BA.”

“You also know you can’t be a priest without a BA, right?” Hank asked.

Charles hummed and looked as pensive as he could.

There was more dissent in the ranks, thankfully Erik thought. Not that it seemed to dissuade Charles at all. Or still. Erik wasn’t sure at this point what was meant to happen.

-

Another few weeks had passed and Charles still took at least one day a week to talk about the priesthood. Erik was just about through with all of it, and as he listened to Charles talk about all the good he could do at Christmas, Erik cut him off.

“Just stop and THINK, Charles! We know you like helping people and that you love religion, but think about it this way. Are you willing to listen to your parishioners tell you their sins and do nothing? You can’t keep a secret from any of us. What makes you think that a life of celibacy is what you want? Have you kissed anyone? Or are you holding out on us about that too?”

Erik knew that it all came out in a rush, but he had been bottling up his feelings for months.

“Why are you trying to ruin this Erik?” Charles all but demanded.

“Because it’s stupid and you’re ignoring all of us for a pipe dream?” Erik got up to leave because he couldn’t take another second of looking at his best friend without throttling him or saying something else he might regret.

He heard no one call after him and so he walked into the bathroom and tried to settle down. He splashed some water on his face and tried to calm his breathing down, though he couldn't remember when it had grown so labored.

There was a slow tap on the tile floor just as Erik was righting himself. Charles had followed him and was staring at him as if the end of the world had occurred in the form of a kicked puppy. Or maybe a kicked Charles, Erik didn’t want to ask.

“Do you think I’m ignoring you?” Charles asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Erik had plenty of answers to that: _Yes, you are, you selfish asshole!_ , _You always do._ , _Why is today different from any other day?_ But those all stopped in his throat.

He was alone with Charles and if he was going to do anything to change Charles’ mind, it needed to happen now. 

Charles had stepped closer and closer as Erik hadn’t answered the earlier question and was just close enough for Erik to finally put his tired and worn-out mind at ease. He took a small step to Charles and before Charles could do anything else, pressed his lips against Charles’.

It was chaste, but Erik felt as if his body would only handle that. He wanted - and needed - so much more of Charles, but it would do him no good to reveal everything in the confines of a school bathroom.

“Stay,” he said when he pushed himself back to the sink, his hands grabbing for purchase. His hands were slipping against the porcelain; just as he thought he would fall to the floor, one of Charles’ hands found his.

There was a warm grip on top of his and Erik knew without words that he had gotten through to Charles.

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by **ninemoons42** , though any and all remaining errors are mine alone.
> 
> Tagged as underage, because at least one of the boys is seventeen, though it's not specific.


End file.
